A New Theory of Organic Evolution

Paperback | February 7, 2012

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1903 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUSION. If the Darwinian theory is based on inference unsupported by substantial evidence--the conclusion at which we have arrived in the preceding chapters--it may well be asked why it was so readily accepted by men of science. Some explanation of the anomaly may be found in the predisposition among educated men, at the time when the theory was first announced, to accept a theory such as Darwin advanced. The then recent demonstration by geologists that the world, as we see it, had been gradually evolved in the course of ages, had convinced all unprejudiced minds that the Mosaic cosmogony, as interpreted, was not in accordance with the facts; and this triumph of science over theological dogmatism naturally predisposed the scientific world to believe that Darwin had done for the world of life what the geologists had done for the world of matter. As geologists had demonstrated that our world had been evolved from chaos by natural forces, in the course of millions of years, so Darwin, it was thought, had shown how its present inhabitants had been evolved from simple forms by natural forces, operating through very extended periods of time. The evidence might not as yet be complete, but further research would doubtless fully establish the new hypothesis. But this expectation has not been fulfilled. The generation that has passed away since Darwin's death has added little to his facts or arguments, and now a critical examination of the theory must lead to the conclusion that it is wholly based on inference, and is not supported by substantial evidence. The intellectual anomaly involved in the ready acceptance of Darwin's hypothesis by men who had criticised and discredited the Mosaic narrative, is not without precedent. In times past some of the ...